Strange Electrical Issue

[bigbrownpilot]

When I bought my red '63 I knew there were a lot of electrical issues to sort out, but this one has been interesting and I can't figure it out. When the battery ground is connected, the transmission indicator index is always lit. When the key is turned to run, everything that should power up come on- the fuel and temperature needles move and the oil pressure light comes on. When I start the car, everything works. When I turn off the ignition and remove the key, the fuel and temperature gauges are still active, the oil light comes back on as soon as the pressure drops, and the transmission indicator stays lit. The previous owner was not an electrical whiz by any means, so I don't know if he screwed up the wiring, but I've looked at the circuits coming into and going out of the fuse panel and everything looks normal. He also replaced the alternator with a single-wire alternator, so I'm not sure if that could be causing the problem. Has anyone ever seen something similar? Alternatively, could it be an internal failure of the ignition switch causing things on 'run" to stay powered when the ignition is off? For now, the solution has been to disconnect the battery ground every time I want it shut down. I'm stumped. Please offer advice!

[Jim Wulf]

When I bought my red '63 I knew there were a lot of electrical issues to sort out, but this one has been interesting and I can't figure it out. When the battery ground is connected, the transmission indicator index is always lit. When the key is turned to run, everything that should power up come on- the fuel and temperature needles move and the oil pressure light comes on. When I start the car, everything works. When I turn off the ignition and remove the key, the fuel and temperature gauges are still active, the oil light comes back on as soon as the pressure drops, and the transmission indicator stays lit. The previous owner was not an electrical whiz by any means, so I don't know if he screwed up the wiring, but I've looked at the circuits coming into and going out of the fuse panel and everything looks normal. He also replaced the alternator with a single-wire alternator, so I'm not sure if that could be causing the problem. Has anyone ever seen something similar? Alternatively, could it be an internal failure of the ignition switch causing things on 'run" to stay powered when the ignition is off? For now, the solution has been to disconnect the battery ground every time I want it shut down. I'm stumped. Please offer advice!

The ignition switch is the likely culprit. I've replaced numerous ignition switches because of similar electrical gremlins.

[bigbrownpilot]

I changed out the ignition switch and that did not solve the problem. Looking for other ideas as to what could be going on. The only way to de-power the circuits that come on when I start the car after turning the key to off is to remove the ground cable from the battery. Then they stay off until the car is started again.

[bbogue]

As I recall from my 61, there’s a ground wire under the dash that connects to the steering column. Maybe that’s at least part of your issue? If I’m wrong, someone please correct me. Good luck.

Bill

[bigbrownpilot]

I found the problem. When I went to replace one of my power window switches I found mystery wiring. A green wire with insulation stripped off and a black wire I thought was a ground but turned out to be hot. Neither show up on a wiring diagram and both appear to have been added. I soon discovered almost by accident that the black wire was the one causing the car to stay energized with the ignition off and engine shut down. I think someone previously jumpered a hot wire to bypass the window relay and make the window switches work, but I’m not really sure what’s going on yet other than my console is torn apart, I have two wires that don’t seem to be Ford standard, and my windows don’t work now. But I found out what has been causing circuits to stay energized with the ignition on and key out.

[bigbrownpilot]

Here’s the rest of the wiring story: Some previous owner ran a black wire from the heater/blower circuit breaker and jumpered the power window switch circuit to get it to work. It looks like an older installation, not recent. The window switch wiring was all hacked up-- Yellow wires spliced to red wires, the buss bar between one of the front and rear switches was missing (found that in the glove box). I re-connected everything as per the factory wiring diagram, but at the end of the day still didn't have power windows. The added black wire was routing power to the black center terminal on one of the power window switches I replaced, which connected it to all the other switches as well, but it was also back-feeding somehow through the power window relay which is why all the START/RUN circuits were staying energized with the ignition off and key out until I disconnected the battery negative terminal. I decided to create a new temporary jumper circuit for the window switches from an unused terminal block under the console but protect it with a 30 amp fuse. I disconnected the power to the window relay and that eliminated the back-feeding problem with the jumper circuit. I ordered a new power window relay, and when it comes in I'll see if I can run the windows off the factory wiring as God intended. The beauty is all I have to do is pull the 30 amp fuse to disable the jumper circuit and if the new relay doesn't fix it just put the fuse back to get windows to work!

[bigbrownpilot]

If anyone is interested, I had great success today. Put new connectors on the three wires to my power window relay, studied the Electrical Assembly Manual diagram, hooked the wires to their correct terminals on the power wire now relay, disconnected the jumper I installed in the console and now I have fully functional power windows that are wired correctly. Don’t understand why the previous owner(s) decided to jury rig the window power circuit instead of coding it corrrctly, but that’s why it was back-feeding through the ignition switch and keeping everything powered with the switch in off and the key removed. Now everything works as it was designed. Also wired my Bluetooth receiver to the fused radio circuit. The last electrical challenge I have is finding the wire for the windshield washer pump and seeing if I can get that working again.

[Morrisonaf]

I’m proud of you dude!! These cars are a mystery that slowly unfolds, but with every gremlin you solve it’s one step closer to having a super reliable cruising machine!

[Cheshire]

Thanks for posting. That's a lot of work. Those power window can be a real headache

[bigbrownpilot]

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The last electrical challenge I have is finding the wire for the windshield washer pump and seeing if I can get that working again.

Thanks for all the positive comments and encouragement! I never did find the wire for the washer pump. I ran a wire through the firewall right under the T-connector for the washer hose through the firewall, then spliced the black connector on the windshield wiper/washer onto the black wire I added. Then, I hid the wire as best I could by running it along side of the washer hose all the way under the washer bag and covering both the hose and wire with hear shrink. Pump is bad so waiting on a reproduction I found on eBay. After that, I got the light in the trunk working again.